Final messages were prepared.
Crews manned a fleet that looked impressive from the water.
Yamato alone was enormous.
Her hull stretched more than 860 feet.
Her main turrets were among the heaviest pieces of rotating machinery ever installed on a ship.
Her armor was designed to resist battleship gunfire.
Her antiaircraft defenses had been greatly expanded during the war.
Around her moved Yahagi and the destroyers, fast ships designed to screen larger units against submarines, aircraft, and surface threats.
The formation still looked like a powerful naval force.
Its weakness could not be seen by looking at the hulls.
It existed in the sky.
Japan could not provide enough aircraft to protect them.
American reconnaissance would soon make that weakness fatal.
American submarines found the force almost immediately
The Japanese ships had little chance of remaining hidden.
American signals intelligence was already providing senior commanders with information about Japanese intentions.
Then physical contact confirmed what was happening.
Submarines USS Threadfin and USS Hackleback detected the force as it moved from Japanese waters and reported its position. American commanders therefore knew a major Japanese surface force was at sea.
That changed the mission before the first bomb fell.
Surprise had been one of Japan's few possible advantages.
It disappeared.
The submarines continued reporting.
American reconnaissance aircraft joined the search.
By the morning of April 7, PBM Mariner flying boats were shadowing the Japanese formation and helping guide the carrier strike toward it.
Yamato even fired her enormous main guns at reconnaissance aircraft using special antiaircraft shells.
The effort accomplished little.
The Americans already knew where she was.
Two American admirals prepared two different ways to destroy her
Admiral Raymond Spruance commanded the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher commanded Task Force 58, the Fast Carrier Task Force.
Both reacted immediately.
Mitscher wanted carrier aviation to destroy Yamato.
Spruance also prepared a surface blocking force in case the Japanese ships escaped the aircraft.
The planned surface force was formidable.
It included modern American battleships such as Massachusetts, Indiana, South Dakota, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Missouri, along with Alaska and Guam, cruisers, and destroyers. NHHC notes that this group would have brought 54 sixteen-inch guns into a possible surface action.
For naval-history enthusiasts, the possibility remains fascinating.
Yamato might have met modern American battleships.
Her 18.1-inch guns might have fired at Missouri or Wisconsin.
One of the last great battleship engagements in history might have occurred.
It never did.
The carriers reached Yamato first.
Task Force 58 did not send one strike
It sent an aerial mass.
Official Navy histories commonly give 386 aircraft launched against the Japanese force. Other summaries round the number to approximately 390.
The force included fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers.
NHHC's detailed account records an initial launch of 280 aircraft from Task Groups 58.1 and 58.3.
That group included 132 fighters, 50 bombers, and 98 torpedo aircraft.
Additional carriers launched another 110 aircraft soon afterward.
Not every airplane reached Yamato.
Weather was poor.
Clouds were low.
One 53-plane group launched from Hancock failed to locate the Japanese force.
Aircraft from other carriers arrived too late.
Even with those losses in coordination, the force that did reach Yamato was overwhelming.
The attacking aircraft came from carriers including Hornet, Bennington, Belleau Wood, San Jacinto, Essex, Bunker Hill, Bataan, Cabot, and others within Task Force 58.
The Japanese force had only a tiny fighter presence.
NHHC records only six Zero fighters appearing initially, with roughly fourteen providing limited cover by 10:00 a.m.
Then that cover disappeared.
Yamato was effectively alone beneath an American-controlled sky.
Destroyer Asashimo began falling behind before the main attack
Before the carrier aircraft arrived, the Japanese formation suffered its first serious separation.
At 6:57 a.m., destroyer Asashimo reported engine trouble.
She began falling behind.